APPLICATIONS OF TIMBER. 2Ctt 



Rudyerd saw and avoided the errors of Winstan- 

 ley's structure; that was a polygon, Rudyerd made 

 the plan of his a circle; there were projecting orna- 

 ments at the top of Winstanley's, Rudyerd's was en- 

 tirely plain. Rudyerd's structure may be considered 

 as altogether a piece of carpentry; for the several 

 courses of moor stone that were in it were mere 

 ballast, and served little other purpose than that of 

 keeping the structure firm by their weight, which was 

 about two hundred and seventy tons. The main 

 column of Rudyerd's building consisted of one sim- 

 ple figure, being an elegant frustrum of a cone, un- 

 broken by any projecting ornaments, or anything on 

 which the violence of the storms could lay hold; 

 measuring, exclusively of its sloping foundation, 

 twenty-two feet eight inches diameter, on its largest 

 circular base; sixty-one feet in height above that cir- 

 cular base ; and fourteen feet three inches diameter at 

 the top; so that the circular base was somewhat 

 greater than one-third of the total height, and the 

 diameter at the top was less than two-thirds of the 

 base at the greatest circle. On the flat roof of this 

 main column, as a platform, Mr. Rudyerd fixed 

 his lantern, which was an octagon of ten feet six 

 inches diameter externally. The mean height of the 

 window-frames of the lantern, above the balcony floor, 

 was nearly nine feet; so that the elevation of the 

 centre of the light above the highest side of the base 

 was seventy feet. 



This structure was completed in three years; the 

 light being first exhibited on the 28th of July, 1708 ; 

 and the work was perfected the following year. Not- 

 withstanding that this edifice was of timber, and ex- 

 posed to the most violent swells and storms that can 

 well be imagined, it appears, that, in consequence ot 

 the simplicity of its form, the skill vv ith which it 

 was framed and fastened to the rock the base, 

 naturally shelving, having been worked to a series 



